Sen. John McCain's family has announced that he's stopping treatment for his brain cancer

Arizona Sen. John McCain’s family announced Friday that he would stop receiving medical treatment for his brain cancer.

McCain was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, last summer.

Arizona Sen. John McCain’s family announced Friday that he would stop receiving medical treatment for his brain cancer.

“Last summer, Senator John McCain shared with Americans the news our family already knew: he had been diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma, and the prognosis was serious,” McCain’s family said in a statement. “In the year since, John has surpassed expectations for his survival. But the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict.

“With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment. Our family is immensely grateful for the support and kindness of all his caregivers over the last year, and for the continuing outpouring of concern and affection from John’s many friends and associates, and the many thousands of people who are keeping him in their prayers. God bless and thank you all.”

McCain, 81, a six-term senator and former Republican presidential candidate, has been absent from the Senate during much of his treatment over the past year.

He said he was scheduled for a regular physical in July 2017 at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, but the brain scan he underwent discovered something, and he was in surgery several hours later.

During the procedure, a minimally invasive craniotomy with an eyebrow incision, a 2-inch blood clot was removed, McCain said.

But a few days later, doctors found that the blood clot was a primary brain tumour. McCain said he did not fully understand the diagnosis until someone brought up Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, who died in 2009.

“I knew it was serious from the sober demeanour of the medical professionals in the room, and when someone, I don’t remember who, mentioned that it was the same cancer that Ted had, I got the picture,” McCain wrote.

While the procedure had removed the tumour, McCain was told that his form of brain cancer could spread across his body.